


A Romantic in Shadyside

by aivi_rose



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Aromantic Jonah Beck, anyway its been over a year since this show ended and im not over it, aroace jonah beck, buffy and jonahs friendship is so underrated, buffy is a great friend as always, this was literally in my drafts for how long and i didn't realize i never posted it??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:34:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28105560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aivi_rose/pseuds/aivi_rose
Summary: i never titled this and i can't think of good titles anymore i'm sorryAnyway, jonah is questioning whether or not he likes boys. But after a bit of talking, Buffy has another theory.
Relationships: background muffy - Relationship, background tyrus - Relationship
Comments: 7
Kudos: 19





	A Romantic in Shadyside

Valentine’s Day in Shadyside. Normally it’s been an awkward mix of friend stuff and whatever weird relationship drama Andi has, but this year was different. Both Cyrus & TJ and Buffy & Marty were celebrating their first Valentine’s Day together, and they wanted to do it with the rest of the Good Hair Crew (+ Jonah). Instead of doing something fancy or super special, they decided the best place to go was The Spoon right after school.

They all started walking together, but Jonah kept near the back of the group. He seemed off, but no one said anything. Finally, he grabbed Buffy’s arm.

“Hey Buffy, can I ask you something?” Jonah asked.

“Yeah sure, what’s up?” Buffy responded.

“Privately,” Jonah said with his voice lowered.

Buffy turned back to everyone else. “I’ll meet you guys at the Spoon, we just need to go over a few details for our science project.”

“We’re not doing a science project,” Jonah said, confused.

“None of them are in our class, they don’t know that. So what’s up?”

“When you first met Marty, you refused to say you had a crush on him. But now you like him. Did something change?” Jonah asked.

“Why do you ask?” Buffy responded.

“I’m just going through a lot of confusion right now. When Cyrus came out to me, it made me realize I never thought about what it meant to like other guys. Like, like like. And I’ve felt the same way towards a lot of my guy friends that I did towards girls like Amber and Andi and Libby,” Jonah explained.

“Jonah,” Buffy said, “that’s okay. You figure these things out as you go.”

“But how did you know you had a crush on Marty? Or Walker? How is that any different than your friendship with Andi?”

“I don’t know, I guess it just is. Like my heart always beats faster around him. I always want to know whether or not I’m on his mind. I’m new at this whole romance thing, but I know it’s much more than just friendship.”

“It’s just, when I met all of my girlfriends for the first time I was so excited. I wanted to spend time with them, get to know them. And I just realized that’s exactly how I felt when I started hanging out with Cyrus. But I don’t know if i want to date him.”

“Jonah, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Do you know what it means to be bisexual?” Buffy asked.

“Yeah, I was looking some of this stuff up online and found it. But I’ve never had that feeling you described. Not for anyone. But I still wanted to date people, and I get jealous. Am I broken?”

“No, not at all,” Buffy said, “I’m just trying to understand. So what made you interested in dating, say, Andi?”

“I just met her and realized how cool she was. How much I liked spending time with her and I just wanted to keep spending time with her. But then labels became too complicated and even after I was okay with being called her boyfriend I couldn’t handle it for too long. But then we did our ‘no break-up break-up” and became friends again. And that was great. It felt exactly like it always should’ve been. No labels, no jealousy, just a dependable friend.”

“And how do you feel about Cyrus?”

“I think he’s an incredible friend. I want to spend time with him a lot too. I was always so excited to see him at all of the ultimate games,” Jonah said.

“And you think you liked him like you liked Andi?” Buffy asked.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I always thought that if I started getting close to a girl and wanted to spend time with her then I had a crush on her. But now I don’t know. I don’t like being in relationships, they just complicate everything. When I’m friends with people, always know that they care. I don’t have to worry about someone else coming in and stealing them. It’s comfortable.”

“Jonah,” Buffy said, “have you considered that you might not like girls either?”

“Then who do I like?”

“You don’t have to like anyone. Not everyone needs to be in a relationship. And you always seem happiest when you’re single anyway,” Buffy said.

Jonah listened to Buffy, and stayed silent. He had no idea how to process that. Could he really just not be in a relationship? Not get married? That’s what he was always told was the end goal of life. You’re supposed to go through life and find your soul mate. That’s how it’s supposed to work.

“Jonah?” Buffy asked. He stayed silent, doing breathing exercises before he started to freak out.

“Jonah, you’re okay. There’s nothing wrong with not staying single,” Buffy said. “Have you ever heard of aromantic?”

Jonah was breathing normally again, and he shook his head.

“It means that you don’t like anyone. And it’s perfect natural and normal. Maybe that’s why it’s so hard for you to tell the difference between a romantic crush and a friendship crush. There’s also asexual, which means you don’t feel sexual attraction, but that’s a talk for a different day,” Buffy said.

“So….aromantic?" Jonah said, feeling the word move through his mouth. “Aromantic. Only feeling friendship and not attraction. That feels…like a relief.”

“Some people even call it ‘aro’ for short,” Buffy said, smiling.

“Aro,” Jonah said, smiling with her. “Yeah, I’m aro!”

“See? There’s nothing wrong with you.”

“Thank you, Buffy. I know we’re not super close, but it felt like you were the only one I could talk to. Imagine bring this up to Andi, or Amber, or even Cyrus—all the people I thought I had a crush on,” Jonah said.

“No problem,” Buffy replied.

“Just do me one favor: don’t tell any of them. This is new to me, and I’m not even 100% sure this is what I am. Like I said, I don’t do well with labels,” Jonah said.

“Of course,” Buffy said. “And let me know if you ever need to talk more about this. I’m here for you.”

“Thanks Buffy,” Jonah said. “Now we better get going, I’m sure our baby taters are cold by now.”

“Or Cyrus gave up on waiting for us and decided to finally do a tater theatre rendition of Hamiliton,” Buffy said as they started walking.

“On Valentine’s Day?”

“According to him, it's too close to Presidents’ Day for him NOT to do it."

Jonah laughed. This, with Buffy, he was sure was friendship. And looking back on everyone else, it seemed like that’s what it always was. Getting ice cream with Amber, playing ultimate with Andi, even hanging out with Libby. Maybe it was never meant to be a relationship—friendship was all it ever was.

For now, Jonah started calling himself aromantic. After a few months, he felt comfortable letting his friends know. Later, he realized he was aroace. Buffy even changed his name in her phone to “The Ace” because he said it sounded like a spy codename. Jonah doesn’t freak out over labels anymore, as long as it makes him feel more relief than anxiety. And no matter what, he knows just how important his friends are to him.


End file.
